Category Archives: 1960s

Spreading the ball around a little too much

The Jets’ Geno Smith hit a new low today in a 43-23 loss to the Bills, becoming just the second quarterback in the Free Agency Era (1993-) to throw more passes to the other team (3) than to his own (2) in a game. (Minimum: two completions.)

This used to happen from time to time in the ’70s and earlier, before they made things easier for QBs, but it’s a rare feat now.

THE LAST 6 QBS WITH MORE INTERCEPTIONS THAN COMPLETIONS IN A GAME

Date Quarterback, Team Opponent Comp INT Result
10-26-14 Geno Smith, Jets Bills 2 3 L, 43-23
12-31-06 Rex Grossman, Bears Packers 2 3 L, 26-7
9-13-92 Ken O’Brien, Jets Steelers 1 3 L, 27-10
9-25-88 Jeff Kemp, Seahawks 49ers 1 3 L, 38-7
9-16-84 Richard Todd, Saints 49ers 2 3 L, 30-20
9-28-80 Vince Evans, Bears Steelers 2 3 L, 38-3

(Minimum: 2 completions.)

Three others of note:

Date Quarteback, Team Opponent Comp INT Result
11-25-74 Archie Manning, Saints Steelers 2 3 L, 28-7
9-29-74 Joe Namath, Jets Bills 2 3 L, 16-12
10-20-68 Johnny Unitas, Colts Browns 1 3 L, 30-20

See? On a Given Sunday, even the best can look like, well, Geno Smith. Namath’s game, by the way, was played in a typhoon in Buffalo. As for Unitas’, it was the Colts’ only defeat that season until their shocking loss to the Jets in Super Bowl III. He replaced Earl Morrall at halftime with Baltimore trailing 14-7 but, obviously, couldn’t get it going.

After the Super Bowl, Colts coach Don Shula was criticized for not putting Unitas in sooner, when it was clear Morrall was struggling. His reason might have been the game against Cleveland, when Johnny U. came off the bench and went 1 for 11 with three picks.

And finally . . .

QBS WHO HAD 3 COMPLETIONS AND 4 INTS IN A GAME (SINCE 1960)

Date Quarterback, Team Opponent Att Comp Yds TD INT Result
10-29-74 Roman Gabriel, Rams Raiders 16 3 67 0 4 L, 45-17
10-9-72 Dan Pastorini, Oilers Raiders 21 3 31 0 4 L, 34-0
12-6-70 Terry Bradshaw, Steelers Packers 20 3 110 1 4 L, 20-12
10-11-70 Mike Taliaferro, Patriots Chiefs 12 3 30 0 4 L, 23-10

● The last QB with four completions and four interceptions in a game: Tom Flick, Chargers vs. Chiefs, Nov. 2, 1986.

● The last QB with five completions and five interceptions a game: Dan Pastorini, Oilers vs. Steelers, Oct. 23, 1977.

Photo from Namath's 2-completion/3-pick game.

Photo from Namath’s 2-completion/3-pick game.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Friday Night Fights VIII: Charley Powell vs. Charlie Norkus, 1954

When Charley Powell died last month at 82, he was an all but forgotten sports figure — outside, that is, his hometown of San Diego, where his feats in football, baseball, basketball, track and boxing are legend. Jim Murray, the Los Angeles Times columnist, once wrote: “When the conversation veers around to all-around athletes, it gets to Charlie Powell in a hurry. There’s Jim Thorpe, Jackie Robinson, and, well, how about Charlie Powell?”

As a 20-year-old in 1952 — he passed up college in favor of a minor-league baseball fling — Powell was man enough to play defensive end for a 49ers club stacked with four Hall of Famers: quarterback Y.A. Tittle, running backs Joe Perry and Hugh McElhenny and tackle Leo Nomellini. A chiseled 6-foot-3, 226 pounds, he might have been one of the greats if he hadn’t gone into boxing, which paid better.

As he told Gay Talese of The New York Times late in his career: “Trouble was I’d have to take weight off in the summertime [for boxing] and put it back on in the wintertime for football. It

An ad in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An ad in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

was off and on, off and on, and I couldn’t concentrate on either sport.”

Powell did have his moments in the squared circle, though. The biggest came in March 1959, when, as a 4-to-1 underdog, he TKO’d Nino Valdes, the No. 2-ranked heavyweight. The win moved Charley up to ninth in Ring Magazine’s ratings, as high as he ever got. From The Associated Press account:

“Valdes had gone down twice before in the [eighth] round [before referee Cy Gottfried stopped it], once following a left and a right to the jaw, . . . and once when the ex-pro football player draped him over the middle strand of the ring ropes. . . .

“[Valdes] suffered a gash over his right eye in the third [round] and thereafter presented a gory picture after he tried to ward off the aggressive Californian, who crowded in and refused to allow his bigger opponent to unlimber his heavy guns.”

After getting off to a 20-3-2 start, Powell settled for a final record of 25-11-3 with 17 knockouts. A succession of broken hands — along with a chin, I’m told, that may not have been made of granite — undermined his early promise. Toward the end, he served as a tuneup for a young Cassius Clay (soon to be known as Muhammad Ali) in 1963 and a dethroned Floyd Patterson in ’64. He was knocked out both times, but give the guy his due: He traded blows with two heavyweight champs.

The following is a clip from Powell’s 1954 bout against journeyman Charlie Norkus at San Francisco Civic Auditorium. You can watch all seven rounds if you want; I’m just focusing on the first one, when he . . .

Now that’s punching power.

Powell mixing it up with Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali).

Powell mixing it up with Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali).

 

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Colts-Bengals . . . and other tail-kickings

In Sunday’s 27-0 blanking of the Bengals, the Colts had a 506-135 edge in yards — a difference of 371. Which raises the question: Is this at all close to the NFL record?

Answer: Not nearly. In fact, it’s not even within 200 (as you can see in the following chart).

BIGGEST YARDAGE DIFFERENTIAL IN A GAME SINCE 1940

Date Winner, Yards Loser, Yards Margin
9-28-51 Rams, 722 Yanks, 111 611
11-11-62 Packers, 628 Eagles, 54 574
11-14-43 Bears, 682 Giants, 157 525
12-4-76 Rams, 569 Falcons, 81 488
11-4-79 Rams, 475 Seahawks, -7 482
11-13-66 Rams, 572 Giants, 103 469
11-6-88 Vikings, 553 Lions, 89 464
9-9-79 Patriots, 597 Jets, 134 463
12-14-47 Redskins, 574 Yanks, 112 462
12-13-53 49ers, 597 Colts, 136 461

How are those for one-sided contests?

I actually covered one of them: the Patriots’ annihilation of the Jets in 1979. Final score: 56-3. (It looked like a touch football game, with the Jets secondary hopelessly chasing around Harold Jackson and Stanley Morgan.) Amazingly, the Jets won the rematch later in the season at Shea Stadium.

Several of these games are notable for other historical reasons. Namely:

● 1951 Rams-Yanks: The Rams’ Norm Van Brocklin threw for 554 yards. It’s still the single-game record.

● 1943 Bears-Giants: The Bears’ Sid Luckman became the first NFL quarterback to toss seven touchdown passes.

● 1979 Rams-Seahawks: The Seahawks’ yardage total of minus-7 is the lowest in NFL history. (Their one first down, meanwhile, is one shy of the mark).

Note that, in five instances, Hall of Fame quarterbacks were involved: Van Brocklin, Luckman, Bart Starr (1962 Packers-Eagles), Sammy Baugh (1947 Redskins-Yanks) and Y.A. Tittle (1953 49ers-Colts). A Hall of Fame QB was even involved on the losing end (Sonny Jurgensen in the Packers’ wipeout of the Eagles). Pat Haden, meanwhile, was the winning QB in two of the games (1976 Rams-Falcons, 1979 Rams-Seahawks).

Finally, the first three teams on the list — the ’51 Rams, ’43 Bears and ’62 Packers — went on to win the championship.

Interesting that the most recent of these games was played 26 years ago (1988 Vikings-Lions). What do you suppose the reason is? Parity? More merciful coaches? Or is it just easier to gain yards now, especially passing yards, whether you’re scoring points or not? (I vote for No. 3.)

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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What once was Sammy’s is now Peyton’s

Tracing the history of an NFL record can be more fun than a barrel of Statue of Liberty plays. That was certainly the case when I researched the mark Peyton Manning broke Sunday night for career touchdown passes.

The Broncos legend — who’s at 510 and counting — is the eighth quarterback to hold the record since 1943, when the Redskins’ Sammy Baugh took possession of it. All eight — Baugh, Bobby Layne, Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Unitas, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Marino, Brett Favre and now Peyton — are either in the Hall of Fame or guaranteed to get there. The NFL isn’t as stats-driven as baseball, but this mark is probably the closest it comes to the home run record in baseball. (Once upon a time, the Holy Grail was the career rushing record, but that was before rule changes reduced the running game to a quaint sideshow.)

The year Baugh broke the mark, statistics-keeping was much less exacting than it is now. In fact, the league didn’t even know who held the record, much less how many TD passes he’d thrown. As proof, I offer page 43 of the 1943 Record and Roster Manual. As you can see, the Top 3 under “Most Touchdown Passes” at the start of that season are Cecil Isbell with 59, Baugh with 56 and Arnie Herber with 51. (Isbell and Herber, two former Packers, had retired, though the latter would make a comeback in 1944.)

1943 NFL Record Book

Unfortunately, the figures aren’t accurate. Subsequent research revealed that Herber was No. 1 with 66 (not 59), followed by Isbell with 61 (not 59) and Baugh with 57 (not 56). Also, Arnie was actually tied with Benny Friedman, who’d thrown 56 of his 66 TD passes from 1927 to ’31, before “official” records were kept. (Or unkept. As I said, there were lots of mistakes that weren’t caught until later.)

Anyway, when Baugh tossed No. 67, there was no mention of the record in the newspapers. Instead, sportswriters gushed about another mark he broke that afternoon — by throwing for six scores in a 48-10 bludgeoning of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Thus, the headline in the next day’s Brooklyn Eagle looked like this:

Brooklyn Eagle headline

“All the stunned crowd could see,” the Eagle’s Harold C. Burr wrote, “was Bob Seymour, Andy Farkas, Wilbur Moore and [Joe] Aguirre . . . taking all sorts of passes — long, short, high and low, leisurely and hurried from the sharpshooter behind the Redskin[s] line, who calmly looked over the field and picked out the man in the clear. Once they gathered in the leather, over their head, waist high or off their shoetops, on the gallop or standing waiting, the receivers whirled away from the Dodger[s] secondary like autumn leaves.”

As terrific as Manning was against the 49ers — and he carved them up to the tune of 318 yards and four touchdowns — he didn’t match Baugh’s 376 yards and six TDs against the Dodgers. So far, nobody who’s broken the record has had a game like that.

By 1962, when the Steelers’ Layne passed Baugh’s mark of 187 by throwing his 188th and 189th in a 30-28 win over the Cowboys, there was a little more awareness of these career achievements. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s headline:

Layne P-G headline

“Layne and the immortal Sammy Baugh of the Washington Redskins had been tied for most TD passes at 187,” Jack Sell reported. “Slingin’ Sam finished his career in 1952.

“The tiebreaker came on a beautiful 38-yard play with Buddy Dial on the receiving end. It not only smashed the record but put Rooney U. ahead to stay in the second quarter.”

There wasn’t much exulting on Layne’s part, though. He’d had to leave the game briefly in the first quarter after he “got slugged,” he said, but didn’t offer any other details about the incident. [At 36 — and playing his final season — Bobby still didn’t wear a facemask.] It should have been one of his more satisfying moments, coming as it did in Dallas, where he’d played his high school ball. The game was even stopped so he could be presented with the ball. But his basic reaction was: “It warn’t nothing. . . . It didn’t feel a damn bit different from any other touchdown pass I’ve thrown.”

(Yes, he said “warn’t.”)

Less than 15 months later, in December 1963, the Giants’ Tittle went shooting by Layne’s mark of 197. He, too, did it against the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl. (Meaning Dallas coach Tom Landry bore witness to both Layne and Tittle breaking the record. Bet he was thrilled.)

The game took place just nine days after the Kennedy Assassination. (How weird must it have been to play in Dallas that close to the tragedy?) TD No. 198 — a 17-yarder to Del Shofner with five minutes left — gave the Giants the victory, 34-27. The pass was released, The Associated Press noted dramatically, “just as the old boy was being slammed to the ground.”

Here’s what’s really funny: The New York Times was so nonchalant about the mark that reporter William N. Wallace didn’t mention it until the seventh paragraph of his story. And when he did mention it, it was only after mentioning first that “Don Chandler . . . kicked a 53-yard field goal for New York today. It was the longest in Giant[s] history and tied the third-longest kick listed in the NFL record book. [Chandler’s] kicking was a major contribution to the Giant[s] victory. So were two touchdown passes by Y.A. Tittle, who thereby set a record. The 37-year-old quarterback has thrown more touchdown passes than anyone else in the 43-year-old league — 197. Bobby Layne held the old mark of 196.”

Talk about burying the lead.

But then, there was something unusual about most of these history-making performances. For instance, when the Colts’ Unitas topped Tittle’s mark of 212 in 1966, the opposing quarterback was the Vikings’ Tarkenton — who in ’75 would break Johnny U.’s record of 290. What are the odds of that?

And when the Dolphins’ Marino blew by Scramblin’ Fran’s mark of 342 in 1995, the opposing quarterback was the Colts’ Jim Harbaugh — the same Jim Harbaugh who, as coach of the 49ers, got to admire Manning’s handiwork up close Sunday night. When he wasn’t gnashing his teeth, that is.

(A couple of other things also made Marino’s feat unusual. One, he had the same coach Unitas did in ’66: Don Shula. And two, he was the only one of the eight QBs who didn’t come away with a victory. Despite his four touchdown passes, which rallied his team from a 24-0 deficit, Miami lost, 36-28.)

Only Favre’s record day was utterly ordinary, devoid of strangeness or coincidence. When the Packers icon threw for his 421st TD to overtake Marino in 2007, it was simply a case of catching the Vikings in a blitz and whipping a 16-yard pass to Greg Jennings on a slant. The middle had been vacated by the safety. Jennings, covered by the nickel back, had no trouble getting open. It couldn’t have been much easier.

And now we have Manning replacing Favre (508) atop the all-time list, firing for one, two, three, four scores to lead Denver to a 42-17 win. You may have noticed, too, that there was plenty of build-up before the game, exhaustive discussion of the record during it and the requisite amount of whoopee when the mark finally fell.

The NFL has come a long way from 1943 — from the days when Sammy Baugh, its most famous player, could break a major record and no one would be aware of it. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game story in Monday’s Denver Post mentioned Manning’s accomplishment before the seventh paragraph.

Unitas photo throwing TD pass

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Friday Night Fights VII: Dick the Bruiser vs. Ivan Rasputin, 1955

Dick Afflis isn’t much remembered as a football player. A muscular 6-foot, 251-pound lineman, he spent four seasons with the Packers in the early ’50s, but the franchise was nigh invisible in those days. It wasn’t until Vince Lombardi arrived in 1959 that Green Bay got back on the radar screen.

After leaving the NFL, though, Afflis became famed in the Midwest as a wrestler — Dick the Bruiser. In fact, David Letterman, who grew up in Indianapolis, named his television show’s Screen Shot 2014-10-17 at 3.16.48 PMband “The World’s Most Dangerous Band” in homage to The Bruiser, who billed himself as “The World’s Most Dangerous Wrestler.” Afflis even won the heavyweight title — or one of them, anyway. (Of course, who didn’t?)

Jim Murray, the Los Angeles Times columnist, probably had the best description of him. “Combine the worst aspects of the Japanese fruit fly, the rose aphid, rabies or the giant spider, together with the best of Benito Mussolini, and you get an idea what kind of man Dick Afflis is,” he wrote. “. . . He wrestles for a living and hates for fun. He looks as if he eats people. He’s the kind of guy who would put Albert Schweitzer adrift in a lifeboat, then poke a hole in his canteen.”

One of Afflis’ more memorable episodes came in 1963, when he started a brawl in a Detroit bar owned by Alex Karras, the Lions’ Pro Bowl defensive tackle. Karras, who had just been suspended for betting on NFL games, was slated to wrestle Dick the Bruiser five days later. (Alex, it seems, had antagonized him by referring to him in a newspaper story as a journeyman football player. Then again, maybe they were just trying to build up the gate.)

This is from a book Bob O’Donnell and I wrote, The Pro Football Chronicle:

[Afflis] no sooner walked in the door than the punches started flying. The first two policemen arrived in no time, but they weren’t a match for the 6-foot, 250-pounder. One suffered a broken wrist, the other a torn elbow ligament. (Neither knew how to counter a body slam.)

Six more cops arrived, and only then was The Bruiser subdued. Nearby, a television set and vending machine lay in ruins. . . . They had to cuff his hands and feet.

Afflis also sustained a five-stitch cut under his left eye, which he attributed to a pool cue. He was fined $400 for his misbehavior, but the money wound up being refunded. Read the crazy explanation here.

When Afflis and Karras met in the ring, the wrestling pro — to no one’s surprise — pinned the amateur in 11 minutes, 21 seconds. Alex left the arena with teeth marks in his bicep. Said The Bruiser: “Football players should leave wrestling to wrestlers and go back to their betting.”

In tonight’s bout, Afflis takes on Ivan Rasputin, a.k.a. “The Mad Russian.” The date is June 10, 1955. The place is the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Afflis died in 1991 at 62. According to the obituary that ran in the Chicago Tribune, he “had been weightlifting at home [in Largo, Fla.] and ruptured a blood vessel in his esophagus.” His gravel voice, the Tribune said, was “the result of a football injury to the larynx,” but his wrestling career also took its toll.

“He broke both ankles, his nose and other bones,” the Tribune reported. “‘I’ve got so many stitches on my head that it looks like a baseball,’ he once bragged.”

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Why today’s NFL players aren’t necessarily All That

The NFL has done a great job of making the past disappear. It’s accomplished this in two main ways: (1.) by lengthening the season from 11 games in the early ’40s to 16 now; and (2.) by tilting the rules, time after time, in favor of the offense. When you look at statistics from the ’60s and earlier, even the numbers put up by Hall of Famers, the players often seem diminished, not as good as the current crop.

Let’s see if I can disabuse you of that notion. In fact, why don’t I start here:

Only seven quarterbacks have thrown 40 touchdown passes in a season, all since 1984. Would it surprise you to learn that five QBs in the pre-merger days (1920-69) threw 40 TD passes in a 16-game stretch? The Fab Five:

5 PRE-MERGER QUARTERBACKS WHO THREW FOR 40 TDS IN 16 GAMES

Years (Games) Quarterback, Team TD
1961 (10)-62 (6) George Blanda, Oilers (AFL) 47
1962 (8)-63 (8) Y.A. Tittle, Giants 47
1943 (11*)-44 (5) Sid Luckman, Bears 44
1959 (13*)-60 (3) Johnny Unitas, Colts 40
1968 (2*)-69 (14) Daryle Lamonica, Raiders (AFL) 40

*title game or playoffs included

Tittle’s and Blanda’s totals (47) would put them behind only Peyton Manning (55, 49), Tom Brady (50) and Dan Marino (48) on the single-season list. Nobody ever points this out, though, because the NFL prefers to push the idea – sometimes illusory – that the game, and especially the players, have never been better.

Now let’s look at the best 16-game stretches for some of the running backs and receivers of yesteryear.

        BEST 16-GAME STRETCHES FOR PRE-MERGER RUNNING BACKS

Years (Games) Running Back, Team Att Yds Avg TD
1962 (1)-63 (14)-64(1) Jim Brown, Browns 336 2,087 6.2 16
1958 (12)-59 (4) Jim Brown, Browns 362 1,964 5.4 19
1961 (3)-62 (13) Jim Taylor, Packers 309 1,764 5.7 21

Note: Brown also had a 16-game stretch in 1964 (four games, counting the title game) and ’65 (12) in which he rushed for 1,855 yards, in case you’re wondering how great he really was. (The NFL record for a season, of course, is 2,105 by the Rams’ Eric Dickerson in 1984.)

              BEST 16-GAME STRETCHES FOR PRE-MERGER RECEIVERS

Years (Games) Receiver, Team Rec Yds Avg TD
1961 (14)-62 (2) Charley Hennigan, Oilers (AFL) 100 2,093 20.9 16
1963 (3)-64 (13) Art Powell, Raiders (AFL) 95 1,772 18.7 20
1966 (1)-67 (14)-68 (1) Don Maynard, Jets (AFL) 85 1,766 20.8 14
1965 (11)-66 (5) Lance Alworth, Chargers (AFL) 84 1,760 21.0 16
1941 (6)-42 (10) Don Hutson, Packers 109 1,648 15.1 24
1960 (12)-61 (4) Raymond Berry, Colts 98 1,639 16.7 10

Note: Five of the six yardage totals would be good enough to crack the single-season Top 10, and Hennigan’s (2,093) is well above the record held by the Lions’ Calvin Johnson (1,964 in 2012).

Yes, Charley, Maynard, Powell and Alworth all played in the AFL, which didn’t have the depth of the NFL (at least, not for the first five or six years). And yes, Hutson’s 1942 season was a war year (though the talent wasn’t nearly as depleted as it would be later on). But most of these guys, remember, are Hall of Famers. I just wanted to give you a sense of how much better their numbers would have been if their seasons had been longer — never mind if they’d been able to play under today’s rules.

Source: pro-football-reference

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Boston Patriots 43, Oakland Raiders 43

It was nice of the Bengals and Panthers to battle to a 37-37 tie Sunday — the highest-scoring draw in the overtime era (1974-). It makes it easier to segue into this next post — about the highest-scoring tie in all of NFL/AFL history.

It took place 50 years ago today at Fenway Park, where the Patriots, then known as the Boston Patriots, played their home games from 1963 to ’68. The final score was Pats 43, Raiders, 43, 43-43 Scoring Sumand unlike today, when indifference, if not disappointment, tends to accompany these games, The Boston Globe called it “the most exciting pro football game in Boston history.” (Of course, there hadn’t been that many pro football games in Boston history at that point, but it’s the thought that counts.)

Part of the reason the paper felt this way was that the Patriots rallied from a 34-14 deficit midway through the third quarter to take the lead, 43-40, with 47 seconds left. The go-ahead score was set up by a play that went like this (according to the Globe’s John Ahern):

[Patriots quarterback Babe] Parilli was back on the Boston 8, and he threw to Jimmy Colclough at midfield. Colclough ran about eight yards with the ball before lateralling off to Gino Cappelletti, who went about five. Just as he was stopped he tossed it to Ron Burton, who got down to the Raiders 31.

That bit of razzle-dazzle led to an 11-yard TD pass from Parilli to running back Larry Garron that put the Patriots up by three. But in the final seconds — there was no OT, remember — the Raiders, aided by a pass-interference penalty at the Boston 30, moved close enough for Mike Mercer to kick the 38-yard field goal that tied it.

It was, as Ahearn wrote, “the dizziest game this old town has seen in years.” Parilli finished with 422 passing yards, which stood as the franchise record for 30 years (until Drew Bledsoe broke it with 426 in 1994). He and Cotton Davidson, the Raiders QB, each threw for four TDs. Also, it was only the fifth time in NFL/AFL history that both teams had scored in the 40s.

What’s particularly amusing is that three years earlier, on the very same field, the baseball All-Star Game had been called because of rain after nine innings with the score tied 1-1. So for a long time — until the 2002 debacle, when the American and National leagues ran out of pitchers — Fenway Park was the site of the highest scoring tie in pro football history and the only tie in All-Star Game history.

Ahern’s only misgiving about the game was that the Patriots had to “settle for a tie instead of a victory. Twice — in 1961 and 1962 — ties have cost the team the Eastern championship. And last year a tie caused a tie [in the standings] at season’s end [requiring a playoff with the Bills that the Pats won, 26-8].”

Fortunately for the Patriots, this tie didn’t end up costing them. In the final week, they still had a chance to go to the AFL title game. Alas, they lost at home to the Bills (who did go — and beat the Chargers). Half a century later, about all that’s remembered of that 10-3-1 Patriots season is their dizzy 43-43 tie with the Raiders, played under the lights at Fenway on a Friday night.

Page 1 Globe 43-43

 

Screen Shot 2014-10-16 at 1.20.24 PM

 

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An old(er) back learns some new tricks

Ahmad Bradshaw’s days as a 1,000-yard rusher are probably behind him. He’s what you might call a complementary back now, rotating with Trent Richardson and giving the Colts, at the age of 28, A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That. It’s the Little Bit of That we’ll be discussing today.

Suddenly, Bradshaw, never much of a receiving threat before, has started catching touchdown passes. He had three TD receptions in his first seven NFL seasons; he has five in the first six games of 2014. That’s as many as any running back has had through six games since 1960. In fact, it’s been 31 years since a back got off to this good a start (Joe Cribbs, Bills). Two of the other backs since ’60 with five TD catches in the first six games: Hall of Famers Gale Sayers (1965) and Lenny Moore (1961).

Clearly, Andrew Luck has faith in Bradshaw as a receiver, because he keeps throwing him the ball in the red zone. (The five touchdowns have measured 1, 7, 6, 15 and 5 yards.) And if Luck keeps throwing him the ball in the red zone, Ahmad might well break the modern record for TD catches in a season by a running back — 9, shared by four players.

MOST TOUCHDOWN CATCHES IN A SEASON BY A RUNNING BACK SINCE 1932

Year Running Back,Team Rec Yds Avg TD
1991 Leroy Hoard, Browns 48 567 11.8 9
1975 Chuck Foreman, Vikings 73 691 9.5 9
1964 Bill Brown, Vikings 48 703 14.6 9
1961 Billy Cannon, Oilers (AFL) 43 586 13.6 9
1960 Lenny Moore, Colts 45 936 20.8 9
2000 Marshall Faulk, Rams 81 830 10.2 8
1986 Gary Anderson, Chargers 80 871 10.9 8
1966 Dan Reeves, Cowboys 41 557 13.6 8
1949 Gene Roberts, Giants 35 711 20.3 8

Always fun to see Dan Reeves’ name pop up in a chart, isn’t it? “Choo-Choo” Roberts, by the way, had one of the great forgotten seasons in ’49 for a 6-6 Giants team. He finished fourth in the league in both rushing yards (634) and receiving yards (711, including two 200-yard games) and scored 17 touchdowns, one shy of Steve Van Buren’s mark (since erased).

I said “modern record” earlier because Hall of Famer Johnny Blood caught 10 for the Packers in 1931, the year before they began keeping Official Statistics. Blood was a hybrid back like Lenny Moore — or, more recently, the Seahawks’ Percy Harvin. He’d line up either in the backfield or on the flank (where his speed could be put to optimum use). Just a dangerous, dangerous receiver. Indeed, he had four scoring grabs of 40 yards or longer that year.

Let’s see Ahmad Bradshaw top that.

Postscript: There are a million Blood stories. Some are even true. He was one of pro football’s all-time characters, the kind of guy who didn’t waste a minute of his life. If you want to read more about him, check out this classic piece Gerald Holland wrote for Sports Illustrated in 1963.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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DeMarco Murray and the Triple Crown

Every NFL season seems to produce a Statistical Phenomenon or two. So far in 2014, the Cowboys’ DeMarco Murray is That Guy. Let’s pray to the grid god that Murray gets to finish what he’s started, because what he’s started is pretty impressive.

Two weeks ago, when I first wrote about him, it was because he’d rushed for 100 yards in each of his first four games — something that had been done only six other times since 1960. Well, now he’s rushed for 100 yards in each of his first six games. No other back has done that since ’60.

Murray also is continuing to shoulder a heavy load. Through Week 4, he was on pace for 396 rushing attempts, which would be the seventh-highest total all time. But his 29 carries Sunday in Dallas’ 30-23 road shocker over the Seahawks put him on a 424 pace. That’s eight more the record of 416, set by the Chiefs’ Larry Johnson in 2006.

In addition, Murray has had 180 touches (rushing attempts plus receptions) in his first six games. Only three backs since ’60 have had more. The Top 5:

MOST TOUCHES BY A RUNNING BACK IN THE FIRST 6 GAMES SINCE 1960

Year Running Back, Team Rush Rec Total
2000 Eddie George, Titans 165 20 185
2000 Ricky Williams, Dolphins 155 27 182
2002 Priest Holmes, Chiefs 143 38 181
2014 DeMarco Murray, Cowboys 159 21 180
1985 James Wilder, Bucs 144 35 179

Wilder, by the way, holds the mark for touches in a season: a superhuman 492 in 1984. Murray projects to 480 (an average of 30 a game). That would be the second-best total in NFL history. As I’ve said before, though, high-volume seasons like that aren’t usually conducive to long-term productivity. Dallas coach Jason Garrett needs to be mindful of the Burnout Factor.

Still, it would nice to see Murray take a run at the Triple Crown — leading the league (or tying for the lead) in rushing yards, per-carry average and rushing touchdowns. It’s a feat that’s been accomplished by just six modern backs, five of whom are in the Hall of Fame. The short list:

RUNNING BACK TRIPLE CROWNS SINCE WORLD WAR II

Year Running Back, Team Rush Yds Avg TD
1998 Terrell Davis, Broncos    2,008 5.1 21
1980 Earl Campbell*, Houston Oilers    1,934 5.2 13
1977 Walter Payton*, Bears    1,852 5.5 14
1975 O.J. Simpson*, Bills    1,817 5.5 16
1967 Leroy Kelly*, Browns    1,205 5.1 11
1963 Jim Brown*, Browns    1,863 6.4 12

(Brown led by a comfortable margin in each category – in rushing by 845 yards, in average by 1.4 and in TDs by 3.)

* Hall of Famer

Murray leads NFL rushers with 785 yards and six TDs, but he has some work to do on his 4.9-yard average. The No. 1 guy in that department through six games, the Ravens’ Justin Forsett, is averaging 6.4 on 64 carries.

A Triple Crown is just incredibly hard to pull off. Consider: Seven backs have rushed for 2,000 yards in a season, but only one of them – Davis – won the Triple Crown. LaDainian Tomlinson couldn’t do it in a year (2006) he led the league in rushing (1,815) and scored a record 32 touchdowns, 28 on the ground (2006). Brown couldn’t do it in a year (1958) he broke the season rushing mark by 381 yards (with 1,527), ran for nearly twice as many scores as anybody else in the league (17 to the runner-up’s 9) and had a per-carry average of 5.9 (which ranked a mere fourth).

What makes it even more difficult is that quarterbacks have led the league in rushing average three of the past four seasons (Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III) and seven times in the 2000s. Let’s face it, quarterback yards are different from running back yards. For one thing, QBs have more room to roam.

Still, some running back someday will have a monster year and become the seventh member of the Triple Crown Club. And if it doesn’t happen to be Murray, he’ll have plenty of illustrious backs to keep him company.

Note: The Chargers’ Paul Lowe also had a Triple Crown in the pre-Super Bowl AFL: 1,121 rushing yards, 6 touchdowns (tie) and a 5-yard average (edging the Chiefs’ Mack Lee Hill by .03) in 1965. If you want to count that, too, be my guest. I’m inclined to exclude those years, even though the NFL record book doesn’t. The two leagues just weren’t comparable — yet.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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3 other guys who threw for 7 TDs in a game

As you may have heard, oh, a quadrillion times, the Broncos’ Peyton Manning and Eagles’ Nick Foles both threw seven touchdown passes in a game last season, tying the NFL record. They’re just the sixth and seventh quarterbacks to accomplish the feat (and the first since the ’60s).

But . . . three other QBs also have thrown for seven touchdowns in a game if you count pick-sixes — that is, the TDs they threw to the other team. And get this: Every one of them is the Hall of Fame. The details of the most imaginative seven-TD games in pro football history:

QUARTERBACKS WHO THREW FOR SEVEN TDS IN A GAME COUNTING PICK-SIXES 

Date Quarterback, Team Opponent TD Int TD Total Result
11-1-64 Len Dawson, Chiefs (AFL) Broncos 6      1 7 W, 49-39
9-29-68 Joe Namath, Jets (AFL) Bills 4      3 7 L, 37-35
9-8-91 Jim Kelly, Bills Steelers 6      1 7 W, 52-34

Notes:

● Dawson (38 attempts, 23 completions, 435 yards, 6 TD, 3 INT) had his most prolific game as a pro for yards and touchdowns — and it almost wasn’t enough. Down 42-10 late in the third quarter, the Broncos scored 29 straight points in 5 1/2 minutes to close to within a field goal with 10:07 left.

Six minutes later, Denver was on the verge of pulling ahead, but wide receiver Al Denson “fumbled near the goal line,” The Associated Press reported, and Chiefs linebacker Walt Corey “picked up the ball and ran to the [Kansas City] 18 with 3:33 to go.” Dawson then led an 82-yard drive for the clinching TD.

Don’t forget: Had the Broncos completed their comeback, it would have matched the Bills’ 32-point rally against the Oilers in the ’92 playoffs, pro football’s all-time biggest.

● Namath (43-19-28-4-5) threw 72 yards of touchdown passes (4, 55, 3, 10) and 198 yards of pick-sixes (100, 53, 45). In fact, there were 79 games in his career in which he had fewer passing yards than he did pick-six yards against the Bills that day. The Jets went on to win the Super Bowl, though, so it was all good.

● Kelly (43-31-363-6-2) connected with wideout Don Beebe for four of his touchdown throws. He, too, reached the Super Bowl that season, but his Buffalo club got killed by the Cowboys, 52-17.

● Oddest note of all: Defensive back Tom Janik had a pick-six of 22 yards vs. Dawson and another of 100 yards vs. Namath. What are the odds of that happening? They were the first and last of his six career INT TDs. Unfortunately, he was long retired by the time Kelly came along.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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